On Distrust in Democracy

Keynote

In the face of a widely diagnosed “crisis of democracy,” calls for more trust and social cohesion are commonplace. But to what extent is democracy a matter of trust? Might distrust and skepticism also have their place in democratic politics? If so, what should these attitudes be like not to undermine and even strengthen democracies and the processes through which conflicts and disagreement are dealt with? In his lecture ‘On Distrust in Democracy,’ Prof. Dr. Jan-Werner Müller (Princeton) will respond to these questions. His keynote is part of a workshop on the liberalism of fear in times of democratic distrust, which takes a more in-depth look at the democratic theory of the liberalism of fear as it may be developed with and beyond Judith N Shklar. At a time of uncertainty when democracy finds itself under serious pressure from authoritarian populism, polarization, and ideological illusions of the heart and the head, her political thought holds out the promise to offer some alternative resources for democratic theory.

Professor Müller is one of the most important political theorists of his generation. He works on the history of modern political thought, liberalism and its critics, populism, the elements of what he calls the “critical infrastructure” of democracies, and the normative dimensions of European integration. He has been teaching in the Politics Department of Princeton University since 2005, where he also founded the Forum for the History of Political Thought. Before, he held fellowships at All Souls College and the European Studies Centre in Oxford. Some of his most well-known publications include Constitutional Patriotism (Princeton UP), Contesting Democracy (Yale UP), What Is Populism? (University of Pennsylvania Press), Furcht und Freiheit (Suhrkamp) and Democracy Rules (FSG and Penguin).

The keynote will be chaired by Prof. Dr. Rainer Forst (Frankfurt).

All are welcome! Please register with Amadeus Ulrich (ulrich@normativeorders.net)